I had Monday off a couple of weeks ago and I left the ladies with Mom and took the gentlemen to see Grandma and Grandpa. Great Grandma helped Zach with his homework then the boys discovered they could make shadows on the wall. Grandpa was in bed talking about cottonmouth snakes. I don’t think I have seen him out of bed except for a meal in months. Grandma asked me if we could stay for supper. I told her I would come for lunch the next day.

*I am as yet not a fan of WordPress, so if you want to look at the photos in a normal shape, click on them and it should make them a normal height X width ratio. I have tried to fix this too many times tonight.

When I got there they were not in their usual spot, but at “the table where the nurse sits at the corner and feeds two people.” The nurse had Grandpa on one side and another guy on her other side. She got Grandpa to eat a couple bites of egg salad, a bite of sweet potato and one of bean soup. Not much. He wasn’t even interested in his ice cream. *gasp!*

Mom and I had lunch at Perkins with Grandma Saturday. Mom very kindly laid it all out for Grandma that Grandpa seemed to be in a lot of pain from his pre-2012 compression fractures and that he weighed 107 pounds and that he is 97 ½ years old and he isn’t eating. (You should have seen them sitting there next to each other with their heads cocked at exactly the same angle.) Grandpa is going to be on hospice and it doesn’t look like he has long. They are making him comfortable with morphine.

Sarah talking to Grandpa

More than Grandpa we are worried about Grandma (her mental health). They have been sharing a room for 70 some odd years and she is going to be lonely. Mom gets over there every other day, and I plan to visit once a week, but if you could write her notes or even post cards she would really appreciate it. She saves that stuff and re-reads it multiple times. Not that you couldn’t call her, but she can enjoy a card much longer than a call. If you need the address, ask me on FB.

Grandma’s dementia is…well dementia. She asked me my name so she could introduce me to the other lady at her table, (whose name she knew) but she often calls me “Carol,” and sometimes she calls Mom “Marcia.” She thinks her dresser (it belongs to the care center because hers is too big for the space) is full of other people’s clothes. She would like to move to assisted living. This doesn’t seem viable but we think if she moves to a single room in another wing of the building she might not know the difference. (and then we could move her dresser in from the storage unit so she would feel comfortable wearing her own clothes)

Grandma gets around okay, she goes to the exercise class and Mom takes her on outings too. Mom says my kids have celebrated far too many birthdays in an old folks’ home, but we try to do things like that there so they can celebrate too.

I hope you can make it to the family reunion this summer. We plan to have lots of fun- be watching your mailbox for more info. We rented the YMCA camp which is right along the river and very cool.